And it has ever been thus. Deaths and displacement are never the main gripe that Palestinians and their Arab allies have with Israel - it is the state of Israel itself.
Nakba Day wa not celebrated in 1949. Wikipedia finds a single reference to several demonstrations in Transjordanian-occupied areas on May 15, 1949, but they were not reported in the news media (as opposed to an anti-British demonstration by Arabs in Libya at the time.)
But here is a description of Arab intransigence towards Israel on the first anniversary of independence, 75 years ago, that shows that Arab antipathy towards Israel was never about injustices or mistreatment: it was always about the refusal to accept a Jewish state in any form. And that applies today to the entire anti-Israel crowd.
Read this column by Carroll Binder in the Star Tribune, May 15, 1949 written on Israel's first birthday, and compare it to, say, this year's Eurovision. It is an eerily accurate description of animosity towards Israel 75 years later.
The Future That Faces U.N. Member No. 59WHEN ISRAEL BECAME the 59th member of the United Nations May 11 its delegate was escorted to a seat flanked on the left by the seat of the Arab delegate from Iraq and on the right by the seat of the Arab delegate from Lebanon.This was not a tactless oversight on the part of the protocol department of U.N. It was a routine operation of the alphabetical seating system of U.N.But it coincidentally symbolized Israel's position in the midst of the Arab world. Symbolical also, was the conspicuous absence of the Iraq and Lebanon delegates. Unable longer to block Israel's entrance into the U.N., the Arab delegates had stalked out of the assembly while Israel was being ushered in.This was to demonstrate Arab resentment at the world's newest republic, the U.S. and those nations particularly responsible for Israel's present status. It was a futile gesture for Israel is a political actuality and nothing the Arabs can do will erase Israel's sovereignty. But it served notice on Israel and its friends that Arab hostility to a Jewish state in Palestine remains unyielding. That is just as ineradicable a factor in world affairs as the existence of a Jewish state.This Arab animosity finds expression in unexpected places as well as in anything affecting the Middle East. For example American and British efforts to write into international law enlightened practices of obtaining and transmitting information have been persistently opposed in the U.N. by Arab delegates.At Lake Success the Arabs voice profound antagonism against the American press, radio and movies which they say is pro-Israel and anti-Arab. They fasor rigorous governmental controls of media of public information by way of protest against the attitude of those media.Arab animosity crops out in negotiations for oil pipelines, control of Italian colonies, military bases. etc.A New York Times correspondent reported from Beirut on May 8 that "opinion seems unanimous in Transjordan. Syria and Lebanon that the Arab nations have a moral obligation to fight again in Palestine as soon as they are able to. Coupled with this is a whole- hearted rejection of the U.N. as a source of justice for the Arabs. The U.N. will accept anything (in Arab opinions) that is imposed by force and the Arab can hope for justice only through the strength of their own arms"A New York Herald Tribune correspondent, who toured the same area a fortnight earlier, told his readers of Arab "anger and humiliation"' at their defeat in a 10-month war which cost them $300 million and exposed their military weakness.The Arabs. he said. "do not disguise their determination to win revenge - to destroy Israel. To the Arab. the 'first round' has been lost but the climactic battle is still to come; maybe 10, maybe 20. maybe even 100 years from now."Mrs. George Antonious. widow of a renowned writer on Arab affairs and herself a social leader in Jerusalem, told the Herald Tribune correspondent, "I will slap the face of any Arah who trades with a Jew. We have lost the first round - not the war.This mood cannot be disregarded either by the Israeli or those who concern themselves about political, economic and military conditions in the Middle East. If it is not modified. Israel will have to devote a large part of its human and material resources to national defense for years to come. Since Israel will need every resource at its command to take care of the million people already living within its narrow confines and the hundreds of thousands desirous of immigrating there, the indefinite prolongation of a state of insecurity would be a tremendous handicap. The Israeli fortunately can count on substantial help from their co-religionists in the United States. Over half of the $150 million raised in 1948 by American Jews for philanthropic work went to immigration. settlement and upbuilding in Israel.
